HOUSE PANEL BACKS CARTER PLAN, 22‐21, TO CURB GAS PRICES

WASHINGTON, June 29—The House Commerce Committee voted today to adopt President Carter's proposal for natural gas price regulation and to abandon a proposal for deregulation accepted three weeks ago by a subcommittee.

Today's 22‐to‐21 vote came amid intensive lobbying from both sides. It was the second step in a long, acrimonious battle over natural gas pricing.

Under the Carter proposal, present controls over the price of natural gas sold in interstate markets would be continued and similar controls would be extended to the intrastate market. A ceiling price, now estimated at $1.75 per thousand cubic feet (compared with the present price of about $1.45), would be placed on gas sold in both markets.

President Carter hailed the vote by the Commerce Committee for its effect on American consumers.

“This fight is not over, but I commend the members of the committee for their courage in the face of strong lobbying pressure,” President Carter told reporters.

Today's Commerce Committee vote reflected the continuing division on energy matters between liberal Democrats on the side of continued regulation and Republicans and oil‐state Democrats on the side of decontrol of gas prices.

Overshadowing the issues before the vote was maneuvering on the part of proregulation forces trying to force a vote. The pro‐regulation side, led by Representative Andrew Maguire, Democrat of New Jersey, feared that a delay would allow the deregulation side, led by Representative Robert C. Kreuger, Democrat of Texas, to increase its support.

At the outset yesterday the committee had intended to consider the bill piece‐bypiece, which would have put off a vote on gas prices until at least Thursday.

But the liberals devised a strategy involving substitute motions, objections to routine procedural questions and a quick adjournment to try to force the President's gas provision to an early vote.

Representative Maguire prevailed on all counts. When the committee reconvened today, the pro‐regulation forces had amIsscd a razor‐thin margin.

The action today is not necessarily the final committee action because part of the Maguire strategy was to open up the entire bill to amendment at the same time. Before the bill is reported out of committee, other votes could come.

Already the deregulation forces have proposed two changes in their decontrol formula that they feel might swing the single vote needed to reverse the decision. The two changes would remove the special protection from high prices initial. ly proposed for gas‐producing states and would assure that the higher prices are borne by industry before they reach consumers.

6 Swing Votes

As many as six members of the Commerce Committee are considered swing votes and have been subjected to intensive lobbying by both sides. One key member, Representative Marc L. Marks, a freshman Republican from Pennsylvania, received telephone calls from both President Carter and former President Ford.

“I studied this for many weeks,” Mr. Marks said after the vote today. “I took a poll in my district which showed that 60 percent of the respondents were against deregulation. I read as much as I could and talked to as many people as I could. I felt, as the President felt when he called, that his bill would offer the best protection and bring in the most natural gas.”

With today's vote clearly very tenuous, both sides were quick to caution that a definitive decision was by no means near.

“Today's vote was just the first step in a long, treacherous road,” said James Flug, director of the Energy Action Committee, a consumer group. “The fact that industry came so close to removing price controls should be a warning to the public about bath the power and the greed of the oil lobby.”

“The closeness of this vote and the closeness of the vote in the subcommittee indicates that this thing will obviously be taken up in the full House,” said a spokesman for the Natural Gas Supply Committee, which has led the fight for the industry.

One of the reasons for the intensity of the battle over natural gas prices is the high stakes. A swing of a few cents in the price of gas can swing billions of dollars from consumers to producers.

The Kreuger decontrol amendment would allow new gas found onshore to be sold at free market prices in both interstate and intrastate markets. Decontrol of offshore gas would be phased in over five years. Federal Power Commission control of gas now being produced would continue, as would regulation of pipeline purchases.

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A version of this archives appears in print on June 30, 1977, on Page 60 of the New York edition with the headline: HOUSE PANEL BACKS CARTER PLAN, 22‐21, TO CURB GAS PRICES. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe